now that the fbi is on scene, the u.s. acknowledged reports of a protest gone wild were wrong. jay carney said i think that what happened in benghazi was a terrorist attack. president obama was asked at that at a forum today. >> what we do know is that the natural protests that arose because of the outrage over the video were used as an excuse by extremists to see if they can also directly harm u.s. interests. >> reporter: intelligence officials now believe it could have been a planned attack all along, looking like a protest. today, officials briefed top members of congress. >> i think the story now is that there was not a demonstration. this was a pre-planned attack. >> reporter: but after the killings, the administration blamed it on protests sparked by the anti-islamist video. >> what happened in benghazi was a spontaneous reaction to what had happened hours before in cairo. >> reporter: franchiustrated, j mccain lashed out at officials for not pointing to al qaeda members. >> i was shocked they thought it was a spontaneous demonstration. it shows the level of their knowled